Page 1331 - les-miserables

CHAPTER XVII

THE USE MADE OF MARIUS’

FIVE-FRANC PIECE

Marius decided that the moment had now arrived when
he must resume his post at his observatory. In a twinkling,
and with the agility of his age, he had reached the hole in
the partition.
He looked.
The interior of the Jondrette apartment presented a curi-
ous aspect, and Marius found an explanation of the singular
light which he had noticed. A candle was burning in a can-
dlestick covered with verdigris, but that was not what really
lighted the chamber. The hovel was completely illuminated,
as it were, by the reflection from a rather large sheet-iron
brazier standing in the fireplace, and filled with burning
charcoal, the brazier prepared by the Jondrette woman that
morning. The charcoal was glowing hot and the brazier was
red; a blue flame flickered over it, and helped him to make
out the form of the chisel purchased by Jondrette in the Rue
Pierre-Lombard, where it had been thrust into the brazier
to heat. In one corner, near the door, and as though pre-

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